Machine for reshaping and shrinking shoe quarters



Dec. 25, 1962 F. DE VITO MACHINE FOR RESHAPING AND SHRINKING SHOE QUARTERS Filed July 10, 1961 4 Sheets$heet l1 INVENTOR. F51. IX DE W70. BY MMWC-Q-$ ATTORNEY-5'.

Dec. 25, 1962 F. DE VITO 3,069,708

MACHINE FOR RESHAPING AND SHRINKING SHOE QUARTERS Filed July 10, 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 ['22 IX 05 V/m Y F. DE VITO MACHINE FOR RESHAPING AND SHRINKING SHOE QUARTERS Filed July 10, 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. fEL/XDE Mro.

Dec. 25, 1962 F. DE vn'o 6 SHOE QUARTERS MACHINE FOR RESHAPING AND SHRINKING Filed July 10, 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. 42 EL/XDE MTG.

HTTOP/VEKT.

nited States atent Ohdce Patented Dec. 25, teen 3,06,708 MACHINE F61 RESHAPING AND SHRINKING SHGE QUARTERS Felix De Vito, Brooklyn, NY, assignor to De Vito Pump Form $0., lne.., Brooklyn, N.Y., a corporation of New Yorir Filed July 10, 1961, Ser. No. 122,681 8 Claims. ((11. 12-53.5)

This invention relates to machines for reshaping and shrinking the rear segment of shoe quarters and is intended more particularly for shaping the quarters of womens low cut shoes such as pumps, oxfords and the like.

It is customary in the manufacture of shoes to block or shape the rear portion of shoe uppers to obtain uniformity and to assure a snug fit at the heel for the average wearer. Such blocking or shaping has been very successfully accomplished by the machine disclosed and claimed in my Patent No. 2,883,686, issued April 28, 1959. However, it has been found desirable, after the shoes are complete and delivered to the retailer, to reshape or shrink the rear segment of the shoe quarter in order to more perfectly fit individual customers. Sometimes this applies to both feet and sometimes only to one foot, depending upon the variation in the shape and size of the feet of the individual customer.

An object of this invention is to provide a machine which is adapted to reshape and shrink the rear segment only of the shoe quarter so as to conform to the heel of the individual customer.

Another object is to provide a method and apparatus for firmly clamping the shoe quarter along its opposite sides forwardly of the rear segment to be reshaped and shrunk and thereafter shrinking said segment by heat and pressure.

Another object is to provide a machine of the character described having means for smoothing opposite sides of the quarter which may become wrinkled during the reshaping and shrinking operation.

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will more fully appear from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a machine embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the machine as viewed from the right hand side of FIG. 1;

FiG. 3 is a top plan view of the machine shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 viewed in a direction normal to the face of that part of the machine which is set at an angle;

FIG. 4 is an elevational segmental view on an enlarged scale showing certain details as viewed in a plane perendicular to the plane of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of portions of FIG. 3 taken similarly to FIG. 4, but from the opposite end of the mechanism as shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a front elevational view of a segment of the machine shown in FIG. 1 illustrating further features of the smoothing mechanism; and

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a portion of the mechanism shown in FIG. 6.

Referring to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2: it} designates a rigid frame structure or pedestal on which the various parts of the mechanism are mounted. The frame structure is provided with laterally outwardly extending flanges 11 and 12 by means of which the machine may be rigidly attached to a suitable bench or table 13 (FIG. 2) by means of machine screws such as 4. The frame ll) is provided with an upper panel 14 which is preferably inclined rearwardly and upwardly Lil in order to position the parts of the mechanism in a convenient location for the operator.

A male die member designated in its entirety as 15 comprises a head 16 longitudinally tapered from a wider front end to a narrower rounded rear end in general couformity with the plan contour of a shoe upper. The head 16 is tapered downwardly and inwardly from its upper face rearwardly of its front end in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at said rounded rear end. The head 16 is provided with a neck portion 17 (FIG. 4) of reduced width and has an enlarged lower portion 18 provided with a rearwardly extending bore in which is disposed an electrical heating element 19. Rigidly secured in the enlarged portion 18 are a pair of studs 20 and 21 FIG. 2), whose upper ends are in threaded engagement with the enlarged portion 18 and whose lower ends extend downwardly and are slidably received in suitable bores provided in block 22 (FIGS. 1, 2 and 4) rigidly secured on the top 14 of the frame 10. The studs 20 and 21 extend downwardly below the block 22 and are surrounded by helical compression springs 23 and 24 which are constrained between the block 22 and abutments on the lower ends of the studs 29 and 21; the abutment on the stud 29 may be a fixed abutment 25 and the abutment on the stud 2% preferably takes the form of a nut 26 in threaded engagement on the stud to provide for adjusting compression of the spring. It will be understood that the springs 23 and 24 normally urge the male die 15 downwardly. In order to move the male die 15 upwardly against the compression of the springs 23 and 24- and hold the same in raised position for the time desired, the fol lowing mechanism is provided. A torque rod 27 (FIGS.

2 and 4) extends in a transverse direction and is freely journaled in the block 22. A pair of studs, such as 28, provided with rounded cam heads, is rigidly secured at their lower ends in threaded engagement in the torque rod 27. Said studs are disposed on relatively opposite sides of the block 22 to retain the cam heads on studs 23 in re ister with the lower surface of the enlarged portion 13. The torque rod 27 is provided with a handle 29 and the parts are so positioned and arranged that when the handle 2 is in the raised position shown by dotted lines, the male die 15 is held downwardly and when the haudle 29 is moved to the solid line position, the cam heads on the studs 23 engage the lower surface of the enlarged portion 13 of the male die 15 to urge it upwardly to open position, and when the studs have been moved in clockwise position (FIG. 2) beyond the vertical dead center, the operating handle 29 may be released and the male die will be locked in its upward position. A stop 29a is provided to determine the locked position.

A female die designatedin its entirety as 3!) (FIGS. 2 and 4) comprises a front female die section 31 (FIG. 1) and a rear female die segment 32. The rear female die segment is slidably mounted on a shelf 33, integrally rigidly formed as a part of the front female die section 31, and is adapted to be moved in substantial parallelism with the said plan contour toward and from the male die head 16 and the front female die section 31 in the manner and for the purposes hereinafter to be described. The front female die section 31 (FIG. 2) is formed integrally with a rigid pedestal 34, which in turn is rigidly secured to the inclined top 14 of the frame it The rear female die segment 32 is constrained to said parallel movement on the shelf 33 and is held against movement normal to said parallel movement by means of a pair of guide rods 35 and 36 whose inner ends are rigidly secured in threaded engagement in the front die section 31. The guide rods 35 and 36 are slidably disposed in bores provided in the rear female die segment 32 and extend outwardly through a fixed vertical plate aoearos 37 (FIGS. 2 and 3) which is rigidly secured to the rear face of the pedestal 3d. The guide rods and 36 are provided on their outer ends with suitable stop heads. The rear female die segment 32 is urged away from the front female die section 31 by a pair of compression springs such as 38 (FIG. 3) disposed around studs 39, whose inner ends are rigidly secured to the rear female die segment 32 as by being in threaded engagement therein, and which pass freely rearwardly outwardly through the fixed plate 37. The springs 38 are constrained between the fixed plate 37 and the heads 40 of studs 39. The rear female die segment 32 is moved toward the front female die section 31 and toward the rearward end of the male die head 16 by a lever 41 provided with an engageable handle 42. The lever 41 is disposed over the head of a stud 43 which passes freely through the fixed plate 37 and has its inner end anchored in the rear female die segment 32. By pushing down on the lever 42 the stud 4.3 is moved downwardly to thereby urge the rear female die segment 32 toward closed position with the rearward end of male die head 16: and that of the front female die section 31. As more clearly shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5, when these front and rear sections abut, the lever 41 may be swung sideways beneath the stop member 44 to lock the parts in position for the time that it is desired to maintain heat and pressure against the rear segment of the shoe uppers. The stop member 44- is attached in generally fixed spaced relation with respect to fixed plate 37 such as by threaded studs 46 and 47 which provide a range of adjustability of the pressure to be applied in the locked position. The edge surfaces 48, 49 of initial engagement between lever 41 and stop member 44, respectively, are rounded to facilitate the engagement (FIGS. 3 and 5). The rear female die segment is suitably heated by an electrical heating element (FIGS. 3 and 4).

It will be understood that the oppositely disposed surfaces of the front female die section 31, which taper downwardly toward each other and rearwardly toward each other, serve as rigid supports for engaging the outer surface of the shoe uppers and supporting the same when the male die head 16 is moved downwardly to firmly clamp the opposite sides of the shoe quarter thereagainst and thus hold the shoe in the desired position to be operated upon.

By suitably positioning the shoe on the male die head 16, the reshaping and shrinking may be varied in degree. The contour of the rear female die segment is a fixed, rigid contour of generally arch shape and conforms substantially to the external contour of the heel and is complementary to and in register with the rounded rearward end of the male die. The front portion of the arch-like cavity in the rear female die segment 32 flares outwardly so that at the upper face of the rear female die segment the cavity is substantially larger than the male die; and the same is true with respect to the front female die section. This facilitates the manipulation of the shoe and does not adversely affect either the clamping or the shrinking operation because when the male die is in its lowermost position it is recessed appreciably below the upper face of the female die.

Operation At the commencement of the operation the male die is raised with respect to the female die, as shown in FIG. 2, and is held in this position against the coil springs 23-44. The rear female die segment is held in its outermost position by coil spring 38, and the male die and the rear female die segment are heated by heating elements 19 and 45, respectively. The shoe having a heel or rear segment is to be reshaped and shrunk is placed over the male die with the sides of its quarter resting against the inner surfaces of the oppositely disposed inner sides such as 5d of the front female die section (FIGS. 3 and 4). The male die head is thereupon moved forward of the rear segment, which sides were held in l downwardly by means of the handle 29 and is locked in pressing engagement where its opposite sides such as 51 engage the inner surfaces of the shoe quarter sides to clamp them against the fixed surfaces such as 56. With the shoe thus clamped and locked in position, the handle 42 is pressed downwardly to urge the rear female die segment 32 against the outer surface of the rear segment of the shoe to apply pressure and heat. By moving the handle 42 to the dotted line position (FZGS. 2, 4 and 5), the parts may be locked in such clamping aositio-n for the desired interval of time during which the reshaping and shrinking will take place. Thereafter, the rear female die segment is released, the male die head la is raised, and the shoe is removed.

Smoother After the rear segment of the shoe upper is reshaped and shrunk as above described, the sides of the upper clamped position by the :male die head 16 and the nt female die section 31, sometimes wrinkle, especially where the shaping and shrinking operation has been of a drastic nature. In order to remove these, i have pro vided a smoothing device designated in general as 6%, which is rigidly attached as by screws such as 61 in the upper left hand corner of the upper surface 14 of the frame 10 (FIGS. .1 and 6). This mechanism comprises a fixed lower jaw 62 and a movable upper jaw as cooperatively disposed thereover. The jaws are normally held apart by helical compression springs 64 and 65. The spring 65 surrounds a machine screw 66 which is in fixed threaded engagement with a portion of the lower jaw 62, and the spring 64 surrounds a stem 67 whose upper end is secured to the movable jaw 63 and whose lower end extends with a sliding fit through a bore in the lower jaw 62 to below the lower jaw 62 and pivotally attached as at 68 to a pair of links 69 whose lower ends are pivotally attached to an operating lever '70 which is pivotally mounted, as at '71, to a rigid part of the frame 10 and which has at its forward end an engageable handle 72. Thus, upon pressing downwardly on the handle 72, the upper jaw 63 moves forcibly toward the lower jaw 62. The upper jaw is provided with a bore in which is inserted an electrical heating element 73 and a similar heating element 74 is inserted in the lower jaw. The upper jaw is provided with a pressing or smoothing head 75 having a substantially flat inner surface and being of a relatively narrow width in a transverse direction and substantially elongated in a front and rear direction, and the lower fixed jaw 62 is provided with a corresponding head 76 in register with the head 75. After the shoe has been operated upon to reshape and shrink the heel or rear segment, the sides of the quarter forwardly of that segment are successively inserted between the pressing heads 75 and 76 which are moved into forcible pressing engagement by pushing downwardly on the handle 72, thereby commensurately shrinking the same to remove any wrinkles therefrom. Together, the reshaping and shrinking of the rear segment and the sides of the shoe upper immediately forward thereof, as is attained by the inventive means which have been described, conforms the shoe to more perfectly fit the individual.

Having thus described my invention with particularity with reference to the preferred apparatus and method, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art, after under standing my invention, that other changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and I aim in the appended claims to cover such changes and modifications as are within the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. A machine of the character described, comprising means for reshaping and shrinking the rear segment of shoe quarters and means for holding said shoes in position while being shaped, said holding means comprising supporting means providing laterally spaced inwardly facing surfaces tapering downwardly toward each other and rearwardly toward each other for engagement by the outer surfaces of the sides of the shoe quarters forwardly of such rear segment, said holding means also comprising a male member disposed between said laterally spaced surfaces of said supporting means and providing complementary surfaces cooperating with said supporting means surfaces for clamping engagement with said sides of the shoe quarters forwardly of such rear segment, said male member extending rearwardly beyond said inwardly facing surfaces and provided with an exterior surface contour at its said rearwardly extending portion generally conforming to the interior of the desired shape of such rear quarter shoe segment, and said reshaping and shrinking means comprising said rearwardly extending portion of said male member and a movable block having an arch shaped interior surface complementary to the exterior surface provided by said rearwardly extending portion, means for heating said block, means for heating the male member, means for effecting clamping movement between said supporting means and said male member, and means for moving said block into cooperative register with said rearwardly extending portion of the male member.

2. A machine as set forth in claim 1 in which said supporting means are rigidly positioned with respect to said male member, spring means is provided for normally urging said male member toward said laterally spaced inwardly facing surfaces of said rigid supporting means, and means is provided for moving said male member against the normal bias of said spring means and away from said laterally spaced inwardly facing portions.

3. A machine as set forth in claim 1 in which resilient means is provided for normally urging said movable block away from said rearwardly extending portion of said male member, means is provided for over coming said resilient means and moving said movable block toward said rearwardly extending portion of said male member, and means is provided for locking said block against said resilient means.

4. A machine for reshaping and shrinking the rear quarters including the heel segment of shoe uppers, comprising a male die longitudinally tapered from a wider front end to a narrower and rounded rearward end in general conformity with a desired plan contour and elevational contour of such rear quarters of the shoe upper, said male die forwardly of its said rearward end being tapered inwardly and downwardly from its said front end in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at said rounded rearward end, a female die comprising a rear female die segment of fixed contour of generally arch shape for cooperative register with said rearward end of the male die and provided with an interior surface tapering inwardly and downwardly from the ends of said arch shape in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at the top of said arch shape and complementary to said male die rearward end, and a front female die section comprising oppositely disposed sides of fixed contour and fixed in laterally spaced relationship, said oppositely disposed sides of the front female die section being tapered inwardly and rearwardly in a direction transverse of said plan contour and complementary to said oppositely disposed surfaces of the male die forwardly of its said rearward end, means rigidly supporting one of said dies in position substantially normal with respect to said plan contour, means for movably supporting the other of said dies in substantially parallel relationship with respect to the first said die, means for movably supporting said rear female die segment with respect to said front female die section and said male die in a plane substantially parallel to said plan contour, means for moving said movable die toward and away from said rigid die in a direction substantially normal to said plan contour, and means for moving said rear female die segment toward said front female die section and said male die in a direction substantially parallel to said plan contour.

5. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which yieldable means is provided for normally holding said rear female die segment in spaced relationship rearwardly of said front female die section and said male die, and means is provided for moving said rear female die segment toward said front female die section and said male die.

6. A machine as set forth in claim 4 in which yieldable means is provided for normally urging said male die toward said female die in a direction normal to said plan contour, and means is provided for moving said dies apart in said normal direction.

7. A machine for reshaping and shrinking the rear quarters including the heel segment of the uppers, comprising a male die longitudinally tapered from a wider front end to a narrower and rounded rearward end in general conformity with a desired plan contour and elevational contour of such rear quarters of the shoe upper, said male die forwardly of its said rearward end being tapered inwardly and downwardly from its said front end in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at said rounded rearward end, a female die comprising a rear female die segment of fixed contour of generally arch shape for cooperative register with said rearward end of the male die and provided with an interior surface tapering inwardly and downwardly from the ends of said arch shape in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at the top of said arch shape and complementary to said male die rearward end, and a front female die section comprising oppositely disposed sides of fixed contour and fixed in laterally spaced relationship, said oppositely disposed sides of the front female die section being tapered inwardly and rearwardly in a direction transverse of said plan contour and complementary to said oppositely disposed surfaces of a male die forwardly of its said rearward end, means rigidly supporting said front female die section in position substantially normal with respect to said plan contour, means for movably supporting said male die in substantially parallel relationship with respect to said front female die section, means for movably supporting said rear female die segment with respect to said front female die section and said male die in a plane substantially parallel to said plan contour, means for moving said male die toward and away from said front female die section in a direction substantially normal to said plan contour, means for moving said rear female die segment toward said front female die section and said male die in a direction substantially parallel to said plan contour, and heating element means of said male die and said rear female die segment.

8. A machine for reshaping and shrinking the rear quarters including the heel segment of shoe uppers, comprising a male die longitudinally tapered from a wider front end to a narrower and rounded rearward end in general conformity with a desired plan contour and elevational contour of such rear quarters of the shoe upper, said male die forwardly of its said rearward end being tapered inwardly and downwardly from its said front end in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at said rounded rearward end, a female die comprising a rear female die segment of fixed contour of generally arch shape for cooperative register with said rearward end of the male die and provided with an interior surface tapering inwardly and downwardly from the ends of said arch shape in a direction transverse of said plan contour along oppositely disposed surfaces merging together at the top of said arch shape and complementary to said male die rearward end, and a front female die section comprising oppositely disposed sides of fixed contour and fixed in '7 laterally spaced relationship, said oppositely disposed sides of the front female die section being tapered inwardly and rearwardly in a direction transverse of said plan contour and complementary to said oppositely disposed surfaces of the male die forwardly of its said rearward end, means rigidly supporting one of said dies in position substantially normal with respect to said plan contour, means for movably supporting the other of said dies in substantially parallel relationship with respect to the first said die, means for movably supporting said rear female die segment with respect to said front female die section and said male die in a plane substantially parallel to said plan contour, means for moving said movable die toward and away from said rigid die in a direction substantially normal to said plan contour, and means for moving said rear female die segment toward said front female die section parallel to said plan cont-our, and means for smoothing the side surfaces of such rear quarters adjacent the heel segment thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Dodge Sept. 13, 1955 

